St. John's Episcopal Church

Address: 110 Chestnut St, Youngstown, NY 14174

St. John's Episcopal Church

One of the locations we stopped at on the tour was the Episcopal Church. The very first Episcopalian church was created in 1789 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The history of episcopalians starts in 1534 with the separation of the English Church and Roman Catholic rule which followed the unapproved marriage to Cathrine, the queen of England. Even though the Roman Catholics and Episcopalinans split, the church of England remained Catholic until the 16th century when episcopalians adopted the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles as their main source documents. It was not until the late 1700’s that Episcopal churches and parishes began to make their mark in the United States of America around the time of the revolutionary war so much so that “By the start of the Revolution, the Church of England was the second largest denomination in America” (Holmes). This was a large part of what gained the Episcopalians a lot of attention in the United States because a dedicated Episcopal church had not been constructed yet even after there was growing popularity amongst these congregations.

Originally the Episcopal church was a part of the Angilican Church which still held ties to England which also meant that it still had traces back to the Crown. Once the revolutionary war began there were still a large number of Episcopalians so once the revolution was concluded in 1783 the colonists of 13 colonies had to reconsider some of its practices and if they wanted to continue believing in them. As it turns out the Episcopals were still tied to the rule of the Crown through the Church of England so it was not until 1789 that the congregations of America officially split with the Church of England in order to avoid an Oath to the Crown.

The Episcopal church has a variety of different source documents for their teachings all of which relate back to their common belief in the Holy Trinity which is the “liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Home). The Diocese of St. John’s church contains multiple congregations that cover the majority of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. All of these congregations follow the teachings of Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe along with the main doctrines of The Bible, The Book of Common Prayer, The Apostles’ Creed, and The Nicene Creed.

Works Cited:

Holmes, D. L. (1993). A brief history of the Episcopal Church: With a chapter on the anglican reformation and an appendix on the quest for an annulment of Henry Viii. Trinity Press International.

Home. The Episcopal Dioceses of Western New York & Northwestern Pennsylvania. (2019, October 30). Retrieved December 6, 2022, from episcopalpartnership.org/

Written by: Clayton Hill

St. John's Episcopal Church Webiste